Busch dominant in Chicagoland Nationwide race

Joliet, IL – Kyle Busch claimed his 10th Nationwide Series win this season with a dominating performance in Saturday's Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Busch started on the pole and led all but five of the 200 laps. He set a Nationwide record for most laps led by a race winner at Chicagoland or any other 1.5-mile track on the circuit. Busch also became the first driver to win an event in the series here from the pole position. There have been 16 Nationwide races held at Chicagoland since the track opened in 2001.

"This was an awesome race car," said Busch, who picked up his Nationwide record-extending 61st career win. "Our car was just phenomenal."

After victories in this race and Friday's Camping World Truck Series event, Busch will attempt to win all three NASCAR races at Chicagoland on the same weekend. He will start 12th in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series' championship Chase- opener. Busch begins the Chase in the third seed.

In 2010, Busch won the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series races at Bristol on the same week, becoming the first driver in NASCAR to accomplish that feet. Last month, Busch also scored victories in the Nationwide and Truck events at Bristol but finished 11th in the Cup race. He had to start from the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary vehicle in qualifying.

"You always need to have good race cars, so we need a good race car for tomorrow," he said.

Joey Logano, who won the Nationwide race at Chicagoland in July, finished second, while Sam Hornish Jr., the current points leader and Logano's teammate at Penske Racing, took the third spot. Austin Dillon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five.

Hornish increased his lead in the championship standings from 16 points to 17 over Dillon.

"I had a great day racing with Kyle and Joey," Hornish said. "Our Ford Mustang was really good. We ended up gaining another point, which is what we need to do."

Regan Smith is 36 points behind Hornish after finishing 13th, while Elliott Sadler trails by 44 points following his 19th-place run. Sadler fell one lap behind after Brett Butler slammed into the back of him while he was slowing down to pit late in the race.

Kenny Wallace finished 17th in his 900th career NASCAR national touring series start.